Due to its vastness and isolation from the mainland U.S., Alaska sees far more private and regional commercial airplane use than any other state in the country.
One estimate calculated 4,996 private plane departures for every 100,000 people in a given year. Alaska Airlines ALK branches such as SkyWest and Horizon Air, along with countless smaller regional airlines, are often used to shuttle people between cities and remote locations.
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Rescue team crews working to locate missing HC-130 based on 'last known position'
One such small regional flight has been missing since approximately 4 p.m. on Thursday. The Bering Air Caravan flight was carrying nine passengers and the pilot on a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan plane.
The flight departed Unalakleet in western Alaska at 2:37 p.m. on Feb. 6 and was supposed to cross the Norton Sound inlet to Nome in a journey meant to take just 55 minutes.
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At 4 p.m., Alaska State Troopers first received notice that an "an overdue aircraft" had gone missing.
"An HC-130 Hercules airplane crew from Air Station Kodiak [was called in] to search their last known position," the Coast Guard's Alaska branch said in a statement published on the social media platform X. "The aircraft was 12 miles offshore transiting from Unalakleet to Nome when its position was lost."
A search-and-rescue operation quickly began, but amid low visibility and the late hour of the day, no progress was made on finding the Cessna. As of the morning of Feb. 7, it was still missing in what some experts believe may be the vast Norton Sound.
Latest update: Plane still missing, water crash 'would be worst-case scenario'
FlightRadar24 data shows that the plane was last in contact with air traffic controllers at 3:16 p.m. Local White Mountain Fire Chief John Adams had said in an earlier statement that the rescue team was "prepared to be out all night" while the plane "being in the water would be the worst-case scenario."
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The snow and fog that had been worsening during the plane's journey may have contributed to both the crash and the recovery efforts.
"Alaska's remote terrain poses a unique danger to pilots and passengers, especially in winter," Eric Brown, a military veteran an CEO of Imperio Consulting, told TheStreet by email. "This missing Bering Air flight underscores the challenges that pilots face when traveling over wild areas. Rescue teams need to move quickly, yet they must keep safety in mind."
Adams also said it would need more help as the Nome Volunteer Fire Department had very limited resources despite working into the night to locate the missing plane.
The Bering Air Caravan plane's disappearance comes in the wake of the first major commercial crash to take place on U.S. soil since 2009. Last week, an American Airlines (AAL) plane carrying 60 passengers collided wth a U.S. Army helicopter as the passenger plane was preparing to land at Reagan Washington National Airport on Jan. 29. The military aircraft was engaged in training exercises.
Both aircraft ended up falling into the Potomac River upon impact, and while a massive search-and-rescue mission took place in the days immediately after the accident, the crash left no survivors.
Many among the 60 travelers were children and elite ice-skating athletes coming back from a training camp in Wichita; the four crew members aboard the plane and three soldiers in the helicopter also died in the crash. The bodies of all the victims have by now been retrieved and identified while accident crews are still working to remove parts of the helicopter from the river.
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